I was ten when my mother gave me away. She had a new husband and baby and no room left for the daughter from a past she wanted to forget. “You’re going to live with Grandma now,” she said coldly. “You’re in the way.” That was the last time she truly acknowledged me.

My grandmother, Brooke, took me in without hesitation. She showed up for every school play, birthday, and heartbreak. When I asked why my mother didn’t love me, she said, “Some people can’t love anyone but themselves. But that doesn’t mean you’re unlovable.” She was right. At 32, I stood at Grandma’s grave—my last anchor gone. Across the cemetery was my mother, still polished, still cold. No glance. No words.

Then, days later, she showed up at my door. Jason, her son—my half-brother—had discovered the truth. Grandma had sent him a message before she died, telling him everything: how I was discarded, erased, hidden from him. Now he wasn’t speaking to her. She wanted me to fix it. I refused to do it for her, but I offered Jason my number. “Whether or not he contacts me is his choice.” He did. We met in a café. He told me how he’d always wanted a sibling.

How our mother told him she couldn’t have any more children. More lies. “Grandma gave me you,” he said. And that’s when we started to build something real. We grew closer while our mother kept calling, kept showing up. I never answered. She made her choice when I was ten. On Grandma’s birthday, Jason and I left yellow daisies on her grave. Across the grass, we saw our mother—alone. “We don’t have to talk to her,” Jason said. “No,” I replied. “We don’t.” Because family isn’t who shares your blood. It’s who chooses you. Grandma didn’t just save me. She gave me my brother, too. And this—this is just the beginning.